Public company Sabre is close to selling UK-headquartered Lastminute.com to Switzerland-based online travel agency group Bravofly Rumbo for $120 million, subject to additional consultation and formal acceptance of the offer, travel intelligence media company Skift said.
Sabre acquired Lastminute.com for nearly $1.2 billion in 2005 and now is selling it for about one-tenth of the initial acquisition cost, according to the report.
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The travel site, one of the best-known names of the dotcom era, was founded by Brent Hoberman and Martha Lane Fox at the back of an office in London in 1998.
Sabre outsourced Travelocity’s North America operations to Expedia in 2013 and has been looking to sell online travel agency LastMinute.com for years, having formally announced LastMinute.com was exploring strategic options in August, Skift said.
Under the terms of the Lastminute.com acquisition, Bravofly Rumbo Group would acquire Lastminute.com global operations, mainly in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, and Bravofly Rumbo would agree to have LastMinute.com continue to use the Sabre global distribution system under a long-term agreement, the report said.
Lastminute.com does some $406.5 million in annual revenue, Sabre states. Bravofly Rumbo Group operates websites in 15 languages but its core markets are Italy, Spain and France.
